In the semiconductor manufacturing process, in order to evaluate electrical characteristics of semiconductor devices on a manufactured wafer, TEG (Test Element Group) patterns, which are an aggregate of elements to be evaluated, are formed on the wafer, and then, the characteristics of the TEG patterns are evaluated.
As shown in FIG. 1B, on a wafer W taken from cassette C, which was brought from semiconductor production lines, one or more dies (chips) D are formed. In each die D, one or more sub-sites S are included. An aggregate pattern on the plural sub-sites S located on the die D is the TEG patterns. In each sub-site, a semiconductor device is formed. Here a FET is illustrated as an example. Pad P is formed at each terminal of this FET. And the characteristics test is performed by contacting a probe (probe electrode) with the pad P.
Namely, under computer control, the semiconductor evaluation device takes a wafer W out from the carried-in cassette C and sets it to a chucking stage, and contact the probe with any of the pads P of semiconductor devices in the selected sub-site S to measure this wafer. The measurement is conducted for the many sub-sites in a sequence, such as; for example, after measuring IV/CV, applying stresses, and then again conducting measurement of IV/CV. The data obtained from the measurement are operated in a computer to out put results of the measurement.
For characteristics tests like above, first of all setting up conditions of the measuring instruments is required. For this purpose, in the semiconductor evaluation device, a user interface for setting measurement conditions is provided.
However, conventional user interfaces for setting measuring conditions were inconvenience in use, because they were uniformly designed to a specific object to be set, such as measurement instruments, without considering its unique characteristic.
Moreover, when multiple measurement sequences are executed, such as the case that different measurement sequences are performed for each sub-site, a setting interface is prepared for each of the measurement sequences, or individual measurement is performed by applying each of different measuring software programs. Therefore, whenever the setting interface differs, recognizing its contents is burdensome and conducting evaluation for each of the different measuring software is required.
Further, when results of the measurement of transistors and the like, which have different element size, for example, when analyzing the evaluation results per unit size in an element, analysis is performed two or more times for every transistor, as it is necessary to input the element size into evaluation formula.
In this regard, the present invention aims at solving the problems of how to improve a user interface in semiconductor evaluation devices.
More specifically, the problem of the present invention is to offer a user interface for systematically setting up the necessary measurement conditions for conducting characteristics evaluation of semiconductor devices, and to improve the operationality of a user interface.
Furthermore, the present invention has the subject to offer a user interface for systematically setting up the analysis conditions for outputting the evaluation results based on the data measured according to the setup measurement conditions, and to improve its operationality.